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Protests in Egypt

Anti-government protests have been occuring in Egypt today. Said to be inspired by events in Tunisia. The protests are said to have been mainly organized through social nettworks like Twitter and Facebook.

I've been watching the updates and information coming through these for the past few hours. The twitter feeds have apparently been blocked though the government denies doing it. Mobile services have also be shut down. Information is getting through on proxies and it looks like through channels that are being set up from both inside and outside of the country.

As fierce anti-government protests in the Egyptian capital of Cairo began to escalate, word broke out Tuesday morning that government forces had blocked access to Twitter's Web site. Twitter users throughout the country reported that they could not access the Twitter.com Web site, though third-party clients were still functioning.

But when CNET contacted Twitter for comment to find out whether they could say if Twitter was blocked in Egypt, no statement was provided--just a link to an evidently new Twitter account, @TwitterGlobalPR, which in turn directed those interested in finding out about an alleged block to consult a site called HerdictWeb.

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Belinsky, who with Digital Democracy works to bring social media and other new tools to underserved populations, said that an outright block is uncharacteristic of Egypt's government, which has been ruled by President Hosni Mubarak for the past three decades. If it's indeed true, that means that the protests against Mubarak's reign are being taken particularly seriously.

"It would be an interesting and desperate move for Egypt because their state security apparatus has been very good at infiltrating communication instead of blocking it," Belinsky explained. "They go so far as to ask for the passwords to the email accounts of dissidents and logins for their websites instead of censoring them. There are some tech-savvy youth there, hence tweeting through proxies as soon as they encounter some difficulties. But after a critical mass, organizing is done more on the streets than online and the authorities already know the details about who the key organizers are in the crowd."

The basics: Egypt is a large, mostly Arab, mostly Muslim country. At around 80 million people, it has the largest population in the Middle East and the third-largest in Africa. Most of Egypt is in North Africa, although the part of the country that borders Israel, the Sinai peninsula, is in Asia. Its other neighbors are Sudan (to the South), Libya (to the West), and Saudi Arabia (across the Gulf of Aqaba to the East). It has been ruled by Hosni Mubarak since 1981.

What's happening? Inspired by the recent protests that led to the fall of the Tunisian government and the ousting of longtime Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Egyptians have joined other protesters across the Arab world (in Algeria, notably) in protesting their autocratic governments, high levels of corruption, and grinding poverty. In Egypt, tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets. Here's a photo of one of the protests in Cairo, the capital (via Twitter):

Why are Egyptians unhappy? They have basically no more freedom than Tunisians. Egypt is ranked 138th of 167 countries on The Economist's Democracy index, a widely accepted measure of political freedom. That ranking puts Egypt just seven spots ahead of Tunisia. And Egyptians are significantly poorer than their cousins to the west.

How did this all start? It started with the protests in Tunisia. But like their Tunisian counterparts, Egyptian protesters have pointed to a specific incident as inspiration for the unrest. Many have cited the June 2010 beating death of Khaled Said (warning: graphic photos), allegedly at the hands of police, as motivation for their rage. But it's also clear that the issues here are larger.

Egyptians have been here before. The so-called Cairo spring of 2005 briefly lifted hopes of peaceful reform and open elections. Those hopes died, like autumn leaves, blown away by a withering sirocco of regressive measures and reimposed emergency laws. Food and price riots in Mahalla el Kubra in 2008 briefly raised the standard of revolt again. They were quickly suppressed.

But Tuesday's large-scale protests were different in significant ways, sending unsettling signals to a regime that has made complacency a way of life. "Day of Rage" demonstrators in Cairo did not merely stand and shout in small groups, as is usual. They did not remain in one place. They joined together - and they marched. And in some cases, the police could not, or would not, stop them.

This took President Hosni Mubarak and his ministers way out of their comfort zone. Interior minister Habib al-Adli had said earlier he held no objection to stationary protests by small groups. But marching en masse, uncontrolled and officially undirected, along a central Cairo boulevard, heading for the regime heartland of Tahrir Square - this was something new and dangerous.

The protests' organisation was different, too - recalling Tunisia, and Iran in 2009. The biggest opposition grouping, the banned Muslim Brotherhood, for so long a useful Islamist idiot manipulated to bolster western support for the secular regime, declined to take part. Egypt's establishment rebel, the former UN nuclear watchdog chief, Mohammad ElBaradei, also steered clear.

Instead an ad hoc coalition of students, unemployed youths, industrial workers, intellectuals, football fans and women, connected by social media such as Twitter and Facebook, instigated a series of fast-moving, rapidly shifting demos across half a dozen or more Egyptian cities. The police could not keep up - and predictably, resorted to violence. Egypt's protests already have their martyrs, killed by police or burned to death by their own hands. But Egypt does not yet have a Neda Agha-Soltan. Pray it never does.

One of things about using things like twitter is that the authorities can read it too. I've come across a few bits of info in Arabic but due to translation it was hard to figure out exactly what I was reading. From bits and bobs here and there it's looking like the protesters 'faked' the police out using twitter and had other plans including organizing protestors to come in waves rather then all that once.

Tonight, protesters have surrounded the parliament building in downtown Cairo. There have been two deaths of protestors in Suez; one policeman has died in Cairo, hit by a rock. The protestors in Tahrir Square have been tear-gassed, and Twitter has been blocked within the boarders of Egypt.

But this morning, as the sun burned a smoky haze off the face of this city, the streets were open and clear as I rode downtown at 8 a.m.

There had been tweets that protests would be staged in Tahrir Square and in the downtown neighborhood of Mohandeseen. These tweets were received by Egyptian authorities monitoring the hashtag #jan25, and they deployed a massive security presence to deter any demonstrations. Officers stood in groups of 6 to 8, on nearly every street corner. They blockaded the entrance to the parliament building. The teams stood quietly with folded arms watching the empty streets as the sun rose over the Nile.

Around the block, I exited my taxi and sat down at a nearby hotel for coffee, waiting as the hours passed. I saw six trucks of police pass on the highway, heading south to Mohandeseen. I jumped into a taxi and followed them.

But here as well, only a small army of police guarded the downtown commercial district. Not a demonstrator was in sight, and sensing this protest had ended before would begin, I went home.

When I arrived, the Twitter hash #jan25 lit up. Someone said that earlier tweets had been deliberately planted as decoys to mislead authorities. Now, in dozens of real locations throughout the city, protesters had begun to mobilize.

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The fight for territory between authorities and protesters moved back and forth. At the north end of the square, police moved their lines back off to the sidewalk and stood beside the Egyptian Museum-because yet another wave of hundreds of protesters, mostly men, was charging towards them chanting, "Allah help us." Seeing the retreating police, I started down the street hoping to get out to the highway. As I fled an Egyptian man in his mid 40s stopped me.

"Not there," he said, "more protesters are coming, this way." He pointed to a side alleyway.

"Where are they coming from?" I asked.

"Everywhere," he said, "they are coming in waves, every ten minutes from all over the city."

"Why?"

"They don't like the government. No food. No drink for people. Many people poor. This is just beginning. Next group comes out in a half hour."

that's the problem with our political system. With a dictator you know your enemy because they don't care what they do to you. Here, it's softened with pr firms, advertising, propaganda...all under the illusion of democracy.

that's why no matter how much we need to, that critical mass of people is impossible to get here in canada.

Egyptian officials on Wednesday announced a new law that bans public demonstrations or organized marches in the wake of deadly clashes between police and protesters demanding an end to President Hosni Mubarak's authoritarian rule.

All Arabs I know are way too excited about the developments in Egypt. I don't want to dash your hope, but from the standpoint of the US, Egypt is quite different than Tunisia. This is the Camp David regime, after all. US and Israel would even send troops to save the regime. Only a massive popular movement can topple Mubarak.

Egyptian police and anti-government activists clashed Wednesday in a second day of protests despite a newly introduced ban on public demonstrations or organized marches.

Dozens of protesters demanding an end to President Hosni Mubarak's authoritarian rule gathered outside the Journalists' Union in downtown Cairo. They chanted: "Mubarak is leaving, leaving. Oh Egyptian people, be brave and join us."

While it would be great if the Pharoah were overthrown by a popular uprising, can you imagine the reaction by the USA and its attack dog, Israel, if an independent - possibly pan-Arab nationalist - Arab state suddenly sprang up on the banks of the Nile?

"An estimated 20,000 protesters, largely youth and young workers, defied a huge deployment of riot police and paramilitary troops in the center of Cairo and thousands more rallied in cities across the country. The upsurge in Northern Africa and the Middle East is a powerful expression of the entry of the masses into revolutionary struggle and the immense social power of the working class."

"Protesters are promising the biggest demonstration on Friday, the Egyptian weekend. A page on Facebook declaring the protest date gained 55,000 supporters in less than 24 hours. 'Egypt's Muslims and Christians will go out to fight against corruption, unemployment, oppression, and absence of freedom,' wrote one activist on the Facebook, which alongside sites like Twitter have been key tools to rally people onto the streets."

Tens of thousands of people in Yemen have taken to the streets in the country's capital, calling for an end to the government of Ali Abdullah Saleh, the president.

Inspired by recent events in Tunisia and Egypt, opposition members and youth activists are rallying at four different locations in Sanaa on Thursday, chanting for Saleh, who has been in power for 32 years, to step down.

"The United States is working intensively to suppress mass protests in both Tunisia and Egypt and prop up the local ruling elites that are entirely subordinate to American imperialism. It is using 'different' tactics in the two countries dictated in large part by their relative strategic importance to US ruling class interests in the Middle East...

Tuesday's momentous events in Egypt have complicated Washington's efforts to contain the upsurge of popular opposition in Tunisia and other Arab countries, including Algeria, Yemen and Jordan.

US Imperialism believes the stakes are too high in Egypt to permit the ousting of Mubarak in a similar manner to the toppling of Ben Ali in Tunisia. It is the main bulwark of US domination in the Arab world..."

Connecticut National Guard Detachment 2, Company I, 185th Aviation Regiment of Groton has mobilized and will deploy to the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, to support the Multinational Force and Observers.

The unit left Connecticut Jan. 15 for Fort Benning, Ga., for further training and validation. The unit operates C-23C Sherpa aircraft and has deployed three times in the last seven years in support of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The unit will provide an on-demand aviation asset to the Multinational Force and Observers commander to support its mission of supervising the security provisions of the Egypt/ Israel Peace Treaty.

This is logistical support for the Multinational Force of Observers that have been sitting in the Sinai since the early 80s. At one time during the 80s and 90s, Canada supplied Huey's, Pilots and ground maintenance personnel to the overall operation. Among many other countries that contribute to the overall force mix, the US supplies a HQ, infantry battalion, a logistics battalion, and a transport aviation company.

Thousands of people in Jordan have taken to the streets in protests, demanding the country's prime minister step down, and the government curb rising prices, inflation and unemployment.

In the third consecutive Friday of protests, about 3,500 opposition activists from Jordan's main Islamist opposition group, trade unions and leftist organisations gathered in the capital, waving colourful banners reading: "Send the corrupt guys to court".

"We believe that Egypt is going to overcome the current wave of demonstrations, but we have to look to the future," says the minister in the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel enjoys diplomatic relations and security cooperation with both Egypt and Jordan, the only neighboring states that have signed treaties with the Jewish state. But while it may be more efficient to deal in with a strongman in Cairo - Mubarak has ruled for 30 years - and a king in Amman, democracies make better neighbors, "because democracies do not initiate wars," he says.

"Astounding things are happening in Egypt...Well 'the west' has spoken out. And it has declared that the Egyptian dictator is not a dictator, even when he is killing and beating his people in the streets.."

http://www.aljazeera.net/news - Police and the military are reported to have "surrendered" to the protesters in Alexandria, rumours are that Mubarak's son has fled to London, and the defense minister is on his way to Washington to ask for help.

Without an alternate party with leadership dedicated to the overthrow of capitalism there will be a vacuum in Egypt. As we have seen throughout history, where one dictator is overthrow, the vacuum is filled by religious fanatics or reactionaries. Recall the Shah of Iran and the replacement with the Ayotollah Komani. The workers and students of Egypt and Tunisia and Yemen and Jordan and everywhere in the middle east must now start to organize and plan on taking power themselves. They may not have experience in governing, but they will learn and learn quickly. Better than allowing some opportunist to fly back in from their exiled countries and continue the exploitation that the people face. The people of the middle east must throw out their despots, refuse America to have a say in the running of their countries, and allow the freedom boats to Gaza free passage. We will never be free until all are free.

The world is watching. Especially the imperialists in America. It is their military aid that is killing and gassing and beating down the world's working class and poor. Obama must go. Harper must go. Clinton must go. North American people watch, learn from our brothers and sisters around the world and make a better world possible.

Already there have been signs that those tired of Mubarak's corrupt and undemocratic rule have been trying to persuade the ill-paid policemen patrolling Cairo to join them. "Brothers! Brothers! How much do they pay you?" one of the crowds began shouting at the cops in Cairo. But no one is negotiating - there is nothing to negotiate except the departure of Mubarak, and the Egyptian government says and does nothing, which is pretty much what it has been doing for the past three decades.